Nail coverings



arch 6, i962 P. COHEN NAIL COVERINGS Filed July 16, 1957 mi, #mir/fha( United States Patent C) 3,023,887 NAIL COVERINGS Paul Cohen, Harrison, N.Y., assignor to Technical Tape Corporation, Bronx, N.Y. Filed IIuly 16, 1957, Ser. No. 672,310 2 Claims. (Cl. 206-56) This invention relates to plastic articles useful in providing decorative coatings for human fingernails and toenails.

In general, fingernail blanks comprise a flexible sheet backing, preferably of thin plastic such as a polyvinyl chloride polymer coated with a pressure-sensitive or other adhesive mounted on a more rigid support or carrier sheet. Reference is made to United States Letters Patent 2,688,331 for the general type structure described. Such plastic blanks or backings (hereinafter referred to as the nail blank) are more or less convexly curved at their outer ends to conform to the outlines of the inner portions of the human nails, the outer curvilinear shape of the blank being achieved-by cutting excess nail blank from the nail after it has been applied.

In making such nail blanks according to the aforesaid application for Letters Patent and also according to the prior constructions, it had been considered feasible to make such blank assemblies in units of five nail blanks, each nail blank of the unit being shaped and sized to fit the respective five fingers of a womans hand. In order to assure that a given user would have adequate fitting of her nails by the blanks, a plurality of sizes of units was contemplated. Moreover, since the decorative blanks are to be supplied in a wide variety of colors, a multitude of sizes in all the colors was contemplated. This entailed a geometric series of unit sizes in the various colors so that adequate choice of colors and necessary sizes were assured.

Furthermore, an additional problem is involved in that many women have fingernails which do not readily fall into a pattern of a more or less standard unit size. For example, a womans thumb may be disproportionately larger than her pinky and so on.

This invention is based on the discovery that a unit of fingernail blanks may be so proportioned and oriented that it comprises a series of blanks which accomplish universal sizing of womens fingernails without a multitude of so-called standard size units of five blanks apiece. Thus, a wide variety of colors may be achieved without undue complexity and difriculty both to the manufacturer of the blanks and to the supplier. Furthermore, according to the invention, what superficially may he considered extra blanks may be used for the nails of another and different sized user or for decorating the toenails.

The invention accordingly comprises the features of construction, combination of parts and elements and juxtaposition and arrangement of elements, all as more specifically described and claimed hereinafter.

In the drawings, FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a nail blank unit constructed according to the invention and FIG. 2 is a sectional view along the line 2-2 of FIG. l.

More particularly in the drawings, in FIG. 1 there is shown a nail blank unit 11 composed of 12 individual nail blanks 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22 and 23 mounted on a carrier or support sheet 25 (shown in FIG. 2). The inner edges of said individual 3,023,887 Patented Mar. 6, 1962 nail blanks are separated from'one another by central slit 28. The lateral adjacent edges of each blank are separated from one another by a plurality of slits 30.

Each blank has a lifting tab 35 (best shown in FIG. 2) to facilitate the removal of an individual blank from the support sheet 25.

As shown in FIG. 2 each blank is removably attached to support sheet 25 by a highly tacky pressure sensitive adhesive 32; except that in the area of the central slit 28 the adhesive 32 joins the said blanks to the tabs 35 which in turn are attached to the carrier sheet 25 by a mildly tacky pressure-sensitive adhesive 37.

It Will be noted that the nail blank unit 11 comprises twelve different sized blanks which are to be used to decorate the five fingers of a single hand. The interrelationship of these twelve individual blanks serves to provide the universal sizing feature of this invention. For example, blanks 12, 13 and 14 may be considered thumb blanks and comprise group I of the assembly 11, whereas blanks 15 through 23 are for the other nails of the hand and comprise group II of the assembly. It will be observed that the group I blanks are sharply curvilinear at the outer edges, but the curve is more or less flattened in the central portion thereof, that is the curvilinear portion is not uniformly sloped. The curvilinear outer edges of the group II blanks are smoothly curved, that is, the slope thereof is substantially uniform.

The group I blanks are 60/64" long whereas the group II blanks are 68/64" long, the length being measured from center strip 28 to the outermost portion of each blank. The width of blanks is measured at the outer portion thereof where the curvilinear portion, e.g. 12b, joins with the straight portion, e.g. 12a, of the side'edge of the blank. The Widest blank 12 of group I is 36/64", a blank 13 is 32/64" wide and blank 14 is 30/64 wide, or minus 1,64" per blank. The widest blank 15 of group II is 30/64, blank 16 is 26/64", blank 17 is 25/64, blank 18 is 24/64", blank 19 is 23/64, blank 20 is 21/64", blank 21 is 20-64", blank 22 is 19/64" and blank 23 is 17/ 64", all plus or minus 1&4" in width.

With the relationships of the sizes of the individual twelve blanks as indicated above universal sizing is achieved.

From the foregoing description of a specific embodiment the features of the invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art; it is to be understood that the description of the specific embodiment of the invention is intended to be illustrative of the principles of the invention and is not intended to unduly limit the invention which is defined more formally in the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

1. A fingernail covering unit comprising a plurality of decorative fingernail blanks each having a base portion and a curvilinear portion conforming to the cuticle portion of a female finger, a support sheet on which said fingernail blanks are removably attached in two rows with their base portions juxtaposed in pairwise relationship along a medial line of said support sheet with opposing base portions slightly spaced to define a slit therebetween along said medial line, the base portion of each fingernail blank further being separated from said support sheet by a lifting tab between said blank and said support sheet, Said support sheet being conformed in its outer edge to the curvilinear portions of the attached ngernail blanks.

2. A fingernail covering unit as in claim 1 wherein said unit contains 12 blanks.

References Cited in the le of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Mull et al. Dec. 6, 1938 Belden June 30, 1942 Hulslander Mar. 18, 1947 10 4 Muhlhauser Aug. 7, 1951 Terry Jan. 8, 1952 Lewis Aug. 19, 1952 Pettey Mar. 31, 1953 Jellinek May 22, 1956 FOREIGN PATENTS Great Britain Nov. 21, 1951 Great Britain July 30, 1952 Germany Feb. 18, 1952 

